TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI – Jim Kelly Jr. got the call from University of Cincinnati athletic director Mike Bohn in late September informing him that he had been selected for induction into UC's James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame.
"Certainly I was very happy, very proud," Kelly said. "It's quite an honor."
Kelly, who will turn 64 on Friday, led the Bearcats in receptions for three straight seasons from 1973 to 1975 and is in his 27th year as the color analyst on radio broadcasts of UC's football games.
He said he sees the Hall of Fame as recognition for both his career as a player and his radio work.
"I was a good football player," Kelly said. "I'll say that. But I also played on a team that ran the ball 90 percent of the time. It's hard to be selected as a player if your numbers aren't there. Being a receiver, the way the game has changed, if you're going to strictly compare numbers, my numbers don't compare. I left the school as the No. 4 receiver (in total receptions) and I'm probably on page four now. It's just the nature of the game."
Kelly is the son of Jim Kelly Sr., a 1978 UC Hall of Fame inductee. When he's formally inducted Wednesday night at the Legion of Excellence Gala inside Nippert Stadium's West Pavilion, Kelly and his dad, who passed away in January 2009, will become the third father-son combination in the Hall, joining the swimming family of William Keating Sr., and his sons, Charles and William Jr.
But only Kelly can claim the distinction of entering a UC Hall of Fame that bears his father's name. Kelly Sr. played end at UC from 1947 to 1950. He led the Bearcats in receptions as a junior and senior on two Mid-American Conference championship teams playing for legendary coach Sid Gillman before becoming a UC assistant coach and eventually an administrator until he retired in 1994.
"It feels really good, and if he was alive it would mean a lot to him," Kelly said. "I just want it to be seen as deserved. That's been the hardest thing for me to deal with. I was a good football player, not a great football player. Since my dad passed away, I've been on this (selection) committee. I've seen the football players' names that have been brought up to this and it's amazing the great players that have come through this program, particularly in the last 20 years. And even back before me and during my period, there's guys on that list who were just incredible football players that are never going to make this honor.
"So for me it was hard to say, do I deserve to be in this? Well I guess collectively if you throw in 27 years of broadcasting and three years of being a good football player, maybe. But the other part of it is that I don't want it to feel like I'm getting in because of the name of the Hall."
Kelly grew up around UC football, beginning his association with the program at a young age.
"It was embedded in me because I enjoyed going to Nippert Stadium when I was 8, 10, 12 years old," Kelly said. "I became a ball boy in my early years in high school. I remember being on the field in the 1968 Miami game as a ball boy catching the (ball) that (UC's) Jim O'Brien kicked for the winning field goal. The memories are great at an early age."
But it wasn't a slam-dunk that Kelly would go to UC after he graduated from Cincinnati's Moeller High School in 1972. When his senior season ended, then-Moeller coach Gerry Faust handed him a shoebox filled with college recruiting letters that had accumulated as Kelly's statistics continued to improve throughout the season.
He narrowed his list of schools to five – UC, Georgia, Ohio U., South Carolina and Tennessee – and took official visits to all but Tennessee. Late in the process, he said, Notre Dame also showed an interest, but by then he was ready to make a decision. He chose UC, not because his dad coached there, but because he believed the Bearcats would throw more passes than the others.
During his freshman year, he made his first UC appearance as a receiver in the seventh game of the season against Louisville at Nippert Stadium when Tony Mason was the Bearcats' head coach.
"I'm sitting there and it's a close game and I hear my name and it was coach saying, 'Get in there,'" Kelly said. "I got in there and I'm nervous as heck."
The first play was a sweep, with Kelly assigned to block, but Louisville was flagged for jumping offside. The Bearcats re-huddled and called a pass play. This time Kelly was designated to run a curl pattern.
"I went down and planted and turned around," he said. "Here comes the ball right at my face and here come three Louisville Cardinals, one of which is (future NFL star) Tom Jackson. He hit me at the same time. The ball shot up in the air. Nobody caught it. I ended up being carted off the field on my first play."
The following year Kelly became the Bearcats' most consistent receiver. He caught 20 passes for 215 yards as a sophomore in 1973; 25 for 345 yards in 1974; and 31 for 404 yards in 1975.
After his senior year at UC, Kelly – who graduated with a degree in business - was signed as a free agent by the NFL Chicago Bears. But because of a shoulder injury he had suffered in his final season, he failed to pass the physical. He returned to UC to spend one year as a graduate assistant coach, then went into business.
His broadcasting career began in 1988 when former UC great Greg Cook decided he no longer wanted to do the color commentary. Kelly auditioned at WCKY, which then held the rights to UC games, and landed the job. The first play-by-play announcer he worked with was Tim Moreland. His first game was at Boston College, a 41-7 UC loss.
Kelly left the booth in 1991, returned in 1995, and has been there ever since. He has worked with Paul Keels, who now does Ohio State games; George Von Benko, and his current partner, Dan Hoard. Naturally, Kelly wants the Bearcats to win every game he broadcasts, but he doesn't come off as a cheerleader on the air. He's known for his objectivity and crisp insight.
"Dan and I, we know each other so well," Kelly said. "He knows the last word I'm going to say and I know the last word he's going to say, so that there's not even a half a second of dead air. I know that if he steps on me it's because he knew that I was going to stop, which I should have probably at one point.
"Dan and Paul, those are two great ones. As good as both of them are, though, they're different. Dan researches and studies his butt off, not that Paul doesn't, but it just flows out of Paul. He knows the game well enough, but he also just has a good flow to the way he does it. They're both great to work with."
Perhaps no one has had a closer view of the highs and lows of UC football over the last 45 years than Kelly. In addition to his playing career, he was in the broadcast booth in the early years of Tim Murphy's massive rebuilding project that began in 1989. He was also there for the Bearcats' trips to the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl in 2008 and 2009 under Brian Kelly.
Through it all, he has remained steadfast in his devotion to his alma mater, which has been, and still is, a major and cherished part of his life.
"We won a lot of football games and we had fun," Kelly said, "and I made some catches along the way. As tight as you are in high school with a team and you think, I'm never going to lose track of you guys, when you get to that next level it's different.
"When I stepped away from school, you go through your job, you go through your family, all those things to take up all your time. You do lose track of people for a while, but you never lose track of them totally. Those guys today, their kids are raised, they're ready to retire. When I see those guys, like at a tailgate thing or when we have the captains breakfast in the spring, it's the greatest thing in the world. It's meant a lot to me."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years – 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer – before joining the staff of GoBEARCATS.com in January, 2015.
GoBEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI – Jim Kelly Jr. got the call from University of Cincinnati athletic director Mike Bohn in late September informing him that he had been selected for induction into UC's James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame.
"Certainly I was very happy, very proud," Kelly said. "It's quite an honor."
Kelly, who will turn 64 on Friday, led the Bearcats in receptions for three straight seasons from 1973 to 1975 and is in his 27th year as the color analyst on radio broadcasts of UC's football games.
He said he sees the Hall of Fame as recognition for both his career as a player and his radio work.
"I was a good football player," Kelly said. "I'll say that. But I also played on a team that ran the ball 90 percent of the time. It's hard to be selected as a player if your numbers aren't there. Being a receiver, the way the game has changed, if you're going to strictly compare numbers, my numbers don't compare. I left the school as the No. 4 receiver (in total receptions) and I'm probably on page four now. It's just the nature of the game."
Kelly is the son of Jim Kelly Sr., a 1978 UC Hall of Fame inductee. When he's formally inducted Wednesday night at the Legion of Excellence Gala inside Nippert Stadium's West Pavilion, Kelly and his dad, who passed away in January 2009, will become the third father-son combination in the Hall, joining the swimming family of William Keating Sr., and his sons, Charles and William Jr.
But only Kelly can claim the distinction of entering a UC Hall of Fame that bears his father's name. Kelly Sr. played end at UC from 1947 to 1950. He led the Bearcats in receptions as a junior and senior on two Mid-American Conference championship teams playing for legendary coach Sid Gillman before becoming a UC assistant coach and eventually an administrator until he retired in 1994.
"It feels really good, and if he was alive it would mean a lot to him," Kelly said. "I just want it to be seen as deserved. That's been the hardest thing for me to deal with. I was a good football player, not a great football player. Since my dad passed away, I've been on this (selection) committee. I've seen the football players' names that have been brought up to this and it's amazing the great players that have come through this program, particularly in the last 20 years. And even back before me and during my period, there's guys on that list who were just incredible football players that are never going to make this honor.
"So for me it was hard to say, do I deserve to be in this? Well I guess collectively if you throw in 27 years of broadcasting and three years of being a good football player, maybe. But the other part of it is that I don't want it to feel like I'm getting in because of the name of the Hall."
Kelly grew up around UC football, beginning his association with the program at a young age.
"It was embedded in me because I enjoyed going to Nippert Stadium when I was 8, 10, 12 years old," Kelly said. "I became a ball boy in my early years in high school. I remember being on the field in the 1968 Miami game as a ball boy catching the (ball) that (UC's) Jim O'Brien kicked for the winning field goal. The memories are great at an early age."
But it wasn't a slam-dunk that Kelly would go to UC after he graduated from Cincinnati's Moeller High School in 1972. When his senior season ended, then-Moeller coach Gerry Faust handed him a shoebox filled with college recruiting letters that had accumulated as Kelly's statistics continued to improve throughout the season.
He narrowed his list of schools to five – UC, Georgia, Ohio U., South Carolina and Tennessee – and took official visits to all but Tennessee. Late in the process, he said, Notre Dame also showed an interest, but by then he was ready to make a decision. He chose UC, not because his dad coached there, but because he believed the Bearcats would throw more passes than the others.
During his freshman year, he made his first UC appearance as a receiver in the seventh game of the season against Louisville at Nippert Stadium when Tony Mason was the Bearcats' head coach.
"I'm sitting there and it's a close game and I hear my name and it was coach saying, 'Get in there,'" Kelly said. "I got in there and I'm nervous as heck."
The first play was a sweep, with Kelly assigned to block, but Louisville was flagged for jumping offside. The Bearcats re-huddled and called a pass play. This time Kelly was designated to run a curl pattern.
"I went down and planted and turned around," he said. "Here comes the ball right at my face and here come three Louisville Cardinals, one of which is (future NFL star) Tom Jackson. He hit me at the same time. The ball shot up in the air. Nobody caught it. I ended up being carted off the field on my first play."
The following year Kelly became the Bearcats' most consistent receiver. He caught 20 passes for 215 yards as a sophomore in 1973; 25 for 345 yards in 1974; and 31 for 404 yards in 1975.
After his senior year at UC, Kelly – who graduated with a degree in business - was signed as a free agent by the NFL Chicago Bears. But because of a shoulder injury he had suffered in his final season, he failed to pass the physical. He returned to UC to spend one year as a graduate assistant coach, then went into business.
His broadcasting career began in 1988 when former UC great Greg Cook decided he no longer wanted to do the color commentary. Kelly auditioned at WCKY, which then held the rights to UC games, and landed the job. The first play-by-play announcer he worked with was Tim Moreland. His first game was at Boston College, a 41-7 UC loss.
Kelly left the booth in 1991, returned in 1995, and has been there ever since. He has worked with Paul Keels, who now does Ohio State games; George Von Benko, and his current partner, Dan Hoard. Naturally, Kelly wants the Bearcats to win every game he broadcasts, but he doesn't come off as a cheerleader on the air. He's known for his objectivity and crisp insight.
"Dan and I, we know each other so well," Kelly said. "He knows the last word I'm going to say and I know the last word he's going to say, so that there's not even a half a second of dead air. I know that if he steps on me it's because he knew that I was going to stop, which I should have probably at one point.
"Dan and Paul, those are two great ones. As good as both of them are, though, they're different. Dan researches and studies his butt off, not that Paul doesn't, but it just flows out of Paul. He knows the game well enough, but he also just has a good flow to the way he does it. They're both great to work with."
Perhaps no one has had a closer view of the highs and lows of UC football over the last 45 years than Kelly. In addition to his playing career, he was in the broadcast booth in the early years of Tim Murphy's massive rebuilding project that began in 1989. He was also there for the Bearcats' trips to the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl in 2008 and 2009 under Brian Kelly.
Through it all, he has remained steadfast in his devotion to his alma mater, which has been, and still is, a major and cherished part of his life.
"We won a lot of football games and we had fun," Kelly said, "and I made some catches along the way. As tight as you are in high school with a team and you think, I'm never going to lose track of you guys, when you get to that next level it's different.
"When I stepped away from school, you go through your job, you go through your family, all those things to take up all your time. You do lose track of people for a while, but you never lose track of them totally. Those guys today, their kids are raised, they're ready to retire. When I see those guys, like at a tailgate thing or when we have the captains breakfast in the spring, it's the greatest thing in the world. It's meant a lot to me."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years – 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer – before joining the staff of GoBEARCATS.com in January, 2015.